GROUP READ: In The Shadow of Wounded Knee by Roger Di Silvestro

As no-one has started this thread I thought I had better do so. I don't think there is many of us reading In the Shadow of Wounded Knee but I hope that our discussion will as interesting as the subject matter is.

I have the book on my iPad and plan to start reading it tomorrow.

Still waiting for mine from the library, but I'm ready

Got my copy - will start probably this weekend.

My copy is at the library, so I will try to start this weekend as well. How are you liking it so far Zozette?

I have only read the prologue and first chapter, as I decided to stop until other actually start. The first chapter gives a brief outline of the life of Lt Edward Wanton Casey - who I think was quite typical of officers of his day. The second chapter will look at Plenty Horses and I think I will find that a bit more interesting.

OK--now I have the book in hand, and have read the prologue and a little bit of the first chapter. I will try to read more tonight.

slow starting.....

Have you two read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee? I haven't, and now I feel like I should.

I am three chapters in--it's pretty horrifying to watch the Lakota get driven out of their homes.

I have read Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (three times, I think). Excellent book, in my opinion. I have also read biographies on Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull so much of the info in the first few chapters is not new to me. I am looking forward to the chapters that deal with Plenty Horses.

Edited to add - the biographies I read were

Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen Ambrose

and

The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull by Robert Utley.

I just was jumping on to ask about the Sitting Bull biography! He seems like a fascinating character.

I am on chapter 5 or 6 now, and finding the book really interesting. I have put Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee on hold at the library, and plan to read it next.

I have just finished the book. I won't say too much until others have read more.

I thought the book was interesting and it covered an aspect of Lakota history I was ignorant about. I thought that overall the story was too short but this is probably a result of there not enough primary sources being left intact for the author to refer to.

I would agree that the book is too short! I think, actually, that there was plenty of background that could be included to round things out. But then, I like long, meandering, non-fiction.

I guess it's a pretty good book, though, if we both wish it were longer.

Banjo123 - as we are the only two who seems to have ended up reading the book what is your opinion on the verdicts reached both Plenty Horses's and the Culbertsons' trials?

Oh, that's an interesting question. The thing that struck me with the Plenty Horse trial; and actually for a bunch of the books, was the cultural divide between Indians and Whites, and how neither group really understood the other. Plenty Horse was tried by a culture, and with a system, that was foreign to him. So for him, and the other Indians, I think it felt just random and unpredictable--like most of their encounters with white culture.

I am not big into law, so I guess I can see the argument that the killing was done during a war, and so wasn't murder, but for me--dead is dead and I don't think much of the distinction.

The Culbertson trial WAS a travesty of justice. Clearly, a dead Indian didn't count for much. Apparently, since Plenty Horse was acquitted, there was no political way to have a guilty finding. It's hard to know if there would have been one otherwise.

What do you think???

I'm here too. Sorry it took me so long, but between hospital visits (my mom decided to fall and fracture her pelvis last Sunday), a reading funk, and the holiday, I just put the book down.

I do agree with Banjo that the Culbertson trial WAS a travesty of justice It is sad to think that 100+years ago any life, no matter what color the person's skin was, didn't deserve justice. However, the times were amazingly different and unfortunately, an eye for an eye was the verdict - if Plenty Horses was acquitted so was Culbertson.

ETA - Too bad Casey never got his medal and that he was killed when he was. He might have been able to stop some of the bloodshed.

I don't think that Plenty Horses should have even been brought to trial as it was a soldier killing an enemy soldier in a time of war.

I do not think that justice was served in the case of the Plenty Horses trial. That verdict was only reach because if he had been found guilty all the soldiers who had chased down and slaughtered fleeing women and children at Wounded Knee would have had to be all charged. Justice would have been Plenty Horses never being charged and the soldiers who killed innocents being found guilty of their murders.

I totally agree that the Culbertson trial was a travesty of justice. The Culbertsons were low-life scum who got away with murder because they were white and Few Tails was an Indian.

I would love to read a novel based on Clown's long walk to safety after Few Tails's murder.

Cyderry--sorry about your mom! Nice point about Casey. One of the interesting things about the book was seeing that some individuals really were able to see beyond their own cultures and prejudices.

Zozette--that would be a fun novel.

I think if someone really wants to look at someone who was able to look beyond his own culture than Major Edward Wynkoop is a good start. He is mentioned in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and that book portrays him as a caring and compassionate man who became friends with and tried to help the Southern Cheyenne and the Arapaho was much as he could. I would recommend Ned Wynkoop and the Lonely Road from Sand Creek by Louis Kraft as the best book about him.

Another book I would recommend is Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story of George Bent By David Halaas which also mentions Wynkoop many times.

I am more knowledgeable about the Cheyenne than I am about the Lakota though I have, as I remarked earlier in this thread, read biographies of both Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (and Red Cloud as well).